Bubba, the next door neighbor's dog, went to heaven

Last week I made a post about this when I found out that he was going to have to be put to sleep on some day last week. I last saw him on Friday and was surprised because for some reason I just thought that they would have done it a couple of days sooner, but the two kids were having a heck of a time coming to grips with the situation. He was lying in the grass in the yard, and the oldest daughter was tearfully trying to convince him to eat or drink something, but he just lay there looking miserable with his food and water bowls inches from his head. Never in my life can I recall Bubba ever refusing food or anything that may or may not be food. It was also the first time he didn't give me his doggie grin and wag his stumpy little tail furiously when he saw me.
I found the original post if anyone's interested...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/116112590

I didn't find out what happened after that since the neighbors have been quiet and staying inside even though the weather has been nice which never happens. But last night I finally ran into L___, and she told me that they had the vet come to the house and put him to sleep on Saturday, the day after I had last seen him. Apparently, he went downhill really fast just like my Boo Bear did, and by Saturday morning he couldn't even pick himself up off the floor at all. The vet said he had a tumor in his tummy, and he probably did have bone cancer in that bad leg. It all seemed to start in his leg, and then he just suddenly started dropping a lot of weight (though he did need to slim down) but it was just falling off of him. That's just how it was with Boo... cancer just eats you.

They were terrified to have the little girl see what the vet did to send him on his way, so our neighbors on the other side of my next door neighbors took her off to the corner store for a treat. She did know that Bubba had to go away, but I think she might have thought that since the vet came to the house that he would be going with her to get "fixed up". For the rest of the weekend they tried again to get her to understand that Bubba had to go to heaven and he won't be coming back. Sometimes she seemed to have it figured out, but then she'd say something like "When I'm D__'s age (her big sister) do you think Bubba can come back by then?" Then just today I heard the most tremendous wailing and screaming from her, which is nothing knew really since he's quite a bratty kid, and wailing and screaming like her head is on fire is a common every day occurrence.

I was in the kitchen at the time with the back door propped open since the weather was so nice and so Yoshi could come and go as he pleased when she came flying out into her yard absolutely beside herself crying and screaming "We have to go get Bubba back!" over and over again. The whole family came tearing outside after her - I swear she was going to scale the fence to go find Bubba in heaven and bring him back. The whole family practically had to tackle her and sit on her to keep her from crashing right through the fence, and she was so upset I actually thought she might. Everyone was crying, and of course I started bawling my eyeballs out witnessing that scene yet trying to mind my business since this was a serious family thing.

Yoshi was having none of that though. He couldn't bear her being so wildly upset and practically through himself out the door after her whining and crying and pawing at the fence where she had collapsed in a heap in their yard. I went dashing out after him since with the whole family running out there and hanging onto her in a group hug (and to try to keep her from throwing herself at the fence to get out and go find Bubba in heaven) I was afraid he'd think they were trying to kill her or something, and Yoshi is VERY protective of her... next to me she's his all time favorite person. He even knows what time she comes home from school and goes outside and sits at the gate waiting for her no matter what the weather. Anywho.... she notices Yoshi trying to dig his way under the fence to get at her (he's never tried to dig under it before), and since she was only a foot or so away from him she crawled over the to fence and leaned her whole bitty little self against it while Yoshi licked her face and her hands and whined and whined along with her. She get her little fingers tangled into his fur since he's leaning on her on my side of the fence like he was doing with Bubba recently to help him stand up on his three generally good three legs and she kept begging him "Please Yoshi we have to go get Bubba right now!" I don't know, maybe she thought that because Yoshi is a dog he'd know how to find Bubba in heaven or something. Then Yoshi couldn't stand it anymore and stuck his nose in the air and howled and howled like a wolf. For some reason that seemed to break everyone up, and by this time practically all the neighbors are out in their yards wondering what in the world all the commotion was about. EVERYONE just started sobbing away like freight trains. I ended up ass in the grass boohooing snots and tears out of every available orifice, and I think it's the first time I wailed in front of anyone since my dad died years ago. I still have a sinus headache after all that, and every time I see it again in my mind I get all choked up again.

So, as I figured out for some reason today it suddenly all made sense to the little neighbor girl as to what happened to Bubba and that he's never coming back ever. I'm not sure why this all came into focus to her all of a sudden, but that was the reason for the hysterics. And I'm well accustomed to her hysterical outbursts, since she'll carry on like a banshee if she thinks her braids are crooked or if there's too much peanut butter for her taste on her sandwich. But THIS... UGH... horrible. They've already promised to get another dog, which is only ever so slightly pacifying her. When they talk about a new dog I guess to try to get her to focus on that instead of the loss of Bubba she get interested but then she sort of slumps and says dismally "But it won't be Bubba". WAAAAAAAAAH!!! Oh, that just breaks my heart!

I can't even fathom how she's coping with this. Bubba was there the day she came home from the hospital after being born, she's never been without him right with her when she's at home. When she was younger she used to climb on top of him to take a nap as if he was a big doggie sofa, and she used to use him as a step stool to get onto the furniture when she was too small to do it herself trampling on his head or his butt, and he was happy to oblige. When she was still in diapers Bubba would sniff her bum every 10 minutes or so until he finally discovered something in there, and run and go get mommy to change her insisting on "supervising" the diaper change and letting her pull on his ears or his droopy flappy jowls to keep her entertained while the diaper changing process went on. Since he'd gotten too arthritic to get into her bed L___ would often find that she'd woken up sometime during the night and gone back to sleep curled up with him on the floor.

I miss him already. I'm still in the habit of looking into their yard when I go outside into mine to see if he's there and say hello and tell him what a good boy he is. I should have known they did it Saturday since that day Yoshi was very mopey and wanted to be in the yard all day though it was warmer than he likes, and I would have expected he'd want to snooze in the air conditioning. Other than that though he's acted as his normal self except since some time earlier in the week I've noticed he doesn't look into their yard anymore looking for his big Bubby buddy. Expect for today with the little one's hysteria since last weekend he's not paid any attention at all to what's going on next door. I wonder if he knows that Bubba isn't there anymore?

I've been searching all day for a photo of him that I took a couple of years ago doing what he does best... his bathmat imitation. It took hours but I finally found it. I think in awhile after they've gotten used to his passing I'll have it printed and framed for them. So, here's the big Bubba Bear who I'm sure is watching over his little girl from heaven...